Nicki Pecori Fioretti

Nicki Pecori Fioretti (MBA ‘96) works tirelessly in the field of housing and community development, administering a portfolio of programs that support building a strong middle class by investing in households and their communities. She has been the Director of Community Affairs at the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) since 2013. 

At IHDA, Nicki and the Community Affairs department work with staff across departments and external partners, including units of local government, HUD-certified housing counseling agencies, community-based organizations, regional planning commissions, and land banks. Their initiatives benefit local communities by putting vacant and abandoned properties back to productive and taxable use, rehabilitating existing homes, providing housing and financial literacy counseling services to help residents become sustainable homeowners, and developing technical assistance programs to build the capacity of housing and community development practitioners. One of her many accomplishments includes coordinating a community empowerment track for an IHDA statewide conference, which brought national and statewide perspectives and provided information about redevelopment and revitalization strategies. She is a frequent speaker at housing forums and serves as a liaison to finance affordable housing alternatives statewide while balancing the fiduciary responsibilities of a financial institution. 

Prior to her current role at IHDA, Nicki served as Director of Finance and Development. In this capacity, she oversaw programmatic research related to finance and debt issuance, specifically in the areas of risk, ratings, and collateral. She led financing teams responsible for coordinating the issuance of IHDA capital market products from the conceptual stage to closing, totaling over $1 billion. A key success in that role involved her conceptualizing, marketing, and moderating a multi-sector Preservation Initiative Roundtable to raise awareness about a $184 million federal financing resource with narrow deadlines. Over 80 professionals participated, gaining additional knowledge about IHDA and federal programs. She has been with IHDA since 1995. 

She has served on the Board of Advisors for the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University Chicago since 2007. She was also an inaugural school board member at the Hope Institute Learning Academy and past chair of the Hope School Foundation Board of Trustees, which supports the Hope Institute for Children and Families in providing education, residential, and health care services to children with autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities throughout the Midwest. 

She has also served on the boards of Women in Public Finance, the Women’s Leadership Council, Loyola, Chicago Area Bradley University (alumni board), and the Gold Coast Neighbors Association. She is a member of Necessities 100 of the Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation and previously served as a volunteer program coordinator for the Chicagoland Starlight Children’s Foundation. 

Nicki earned her MBA in Finance at Loyola University Chicago and her BS, cum laude, in Mass Communications at Bradley University.